(Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News) — Just when we thought the SARS-CoV-2 virus couldn’t get any more insidious, a new study from investigators at the Yale School of Medicine describes the mechanisms that allow the coronavirus to directly infect the central nervous system.
The new study was performed using both mouse and human brain tissue, and the results were published recently in the Journal of Experimental Medicine through an article entitled “Neuroinvasion of SARS-CoV-2 in human and mouse brain.” The study authors are optimistic that their findings may help other researchers develop treatments for the various neurological symptoms associated with COVID-19.
“Understanding the full extent of viral invasion is crucial to treating patients, as we begin to try to figure out the long-term consequences of COVID-19, many of which are predicted to involve the central nervous system,” explained senior study investigator Akiko Iwasaki, PhD, a professor at Yale School of Medicine and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. (…)